Theoretical and Empirical Approaches to Ethics in Technology
In this working group, our main goal is to discuss and share different approaches to IT ethics and ethical IT design. These can include theoretical frameworks, methods for and experiences from teaching, newly developed methodological approaches for IT design, as well as insights gathered through empirical research.
Our first aim is to bring together our diverse perspectives and empirical considerations of values in existing technology and what we consider as ethical design. Values in technology design are an important topic for many of us, as are the consequences of ICT use on human and societal wellbeing. Our second aim is to extend our network and invite researchers from other disciplines and institutes to add new perspectives, both theoretical and empirical.
Core topics
- Human well-being and IT
- Values and IT
- Ethics and IT
- Human-centered design
- Value-oriented approaches to IT design and innovation (VSD, VbE)
- Value identification & prioritization
- Dealing with value knowledge
- The values of conversational agents
- Attention-sensitive IT design
- Human-energy sensitive IT design
- Views of human nature and technology
- Theories of ethics and IT
- Utilitarianism, virtue ethics, deontology
- Material value ethics (Scheler, Hartmann)
- Impacts of IT design on human well-being
- Digital fatigue and energy depletion
